The Book
by Shinigami's Death Angel
Summary: Superman is looking for Brainy and finds him engrossed in a book he never would have expected him to be


**The Book**

It was unusual for it to be this quiet for so long. Usually the day wouldn't be complete without some kind of mini explosion coming from a certain genius's lab but today all had been quiet, even COMPUTO hadn't set the alarm sirens off yet.

Now normally Superman would have welcomed this little respite from the missions and occasional smoke filling Legion headquarters, but today he was getting worried. When noon time came and went without a hitch he'd started wondering what was up and decided to go to the cavernous lab filled with bubbling and beeping experiments, but found a curious absence of green geniuses. Instead he came nose to…mouth (?) with some kind of furry little fuzz ball with fangs.

His next place to check was of course the main room where COMPUTO was housed to see if his little genius was there, but sadly all he found was a frazzled Bouncing Boy trying to reconnect COMPUTO's circuits after he apparently tried to use it. Note the word tried.

"Do you know how to do this without getting an earful from Brainy?" Bouncing Boy sounded near hysterics as he looked up at the sound of Superman's approach, clutching several frayed and slightly zappy wires.

"Uh, no. Have you seen Brainy?" Superman asked, but Bouncing Boy had ducked under COMPUTO again and was muttering furiously to himself. "Okay then, I'll just be going." Superman said slowly before high tailing it out of there.

"Where could he possibly be?" Superman wondered out loud as he passed by the kitchen, peeking in only to see Phantom Girl chatting on about stuff while Timber Wolf was mixing some kind of batter in a bowl. "Either of you seen Brainy?" Superman chanced the question.

"Nope." Phantom Girl said cheerfully before going right back to whatever she'd been saying before.

Superman sighed in exasperation before heading to their living room like space where there were couches and chaises and a coffee table strewn with decks of cards that all overlooked the city through the big glass window spanning an entire side of the room. On first glance the room appeared to be entirely empty and so, huffing in slight annoyance, Superman plopped himself down on the nearest couch to have a silent sulk only to find that the couch wasn't quite as unoccupied as it had first seemed.

"Superman, I'm not quite sure what all the normal customs on Earth are, but I'm pretty sure they don't include sitting on someone while they're reading." A very matter of fact voice made Superman look down to see that the cushion he'd just plopped down on was actually a person, matter of fact it was the person he'd been looking for.

"Where've you been? I've been looking all over for you." Superman said, not bothering to move himself off the smaller Coluan's back. Brainy has been laying on his stomach with a book propped up against the couch's armrest and was so sunk into the plushy cushions that it had been hard to see him from the doorway.

"Well obviously I've been here." Brainy said in that tone that tended to make the one it was directed at feel a lot more stupid than they'd thought they were. "My experiments are currently stable as is COMPUTO, so I decided to take a break." He explained as he flipped a page in his book before looking back at Superman with a slightly mischievous glint in his magenta eyes. "Got a problem with that?"

"No." Superman playfully ruffled the Coluan's hair. "But I'm not so sure about COMPUTO being stable." He added as an afterthought.

"What did Bouncing Boy do?" Brainy's eyes immediately narrowed as he half rose from his position on the couch, though still weighed down by Superman.

"I'm not quite sure." Superman replied in all honesty.

"Honestly, when will he listen when I tell him to keep his hands off." Brainy fairly growled as he wiggled out from under Superman and practically stomped out of the room.

Knowing that Brainy would be back once he finished fixing Bouncing Boy's mess Superman spread himself out on the couch and took up Brainy's abandoned book. A few lines in and one of Superman's eyebrows started traveling up his forehead in amusement. This was going to be interesting.

* * *

When Brainy returned from yelling at Bouncing Boy about messing with other people's things while deftly rewiring COMPUTO's circuits and booting it back up it was to find the red caped hero on the couch where he'd left him reading intently through the book he'd left. Feeling his own circuits freeze up before speeding along a lot faster than they were supposed to Brainy, in a very unbrainyish way, flung himself onto Superman's back and tried to pry the book away from him.

"Superman give it back!"

"No! I like it." Superman insisted, barely holding in his laughter at the dark green blush that was blossoming on Brainy's cheeks.

"Don't laugh!" Brainy tried once again to swipe the book but failed as the taller boy's arms were longer. Feeling a bit stupid at that realization Brainy quickly extended his own arms and managed to snatch the book away and clutch it closely to his chest protectively.

"I'm not laughing at you Brainy." Superman assured him as he wrapped his own arms around the very obviously embarrassed Coluan. "I think it's really cute that you read stuff like that. I'd always thought if you read any books they'd be thick ones with tiny little print about some technological stuff that no one else would get."

"I do read those." Brainy mumbled in self defense. "But whenever I feel like unwinding I found that these work better." His blush, if it was at all possible, just got deeper as those words left his mouth.

"So you like stories about a hero whose true love is injured in battle and they have this big mushy scene where sappy words are exchanged?" Superman teased, not letting the squirming Coluan escape his hold. "If you're not careful you're going to start using the simulator to act these books out."

"Am not." Brainy insisted with a slight pout as he clutched the book tighter, making Superman laugh again before lightly kissing his blushing cheek.

"You so are."


End file.
